You are absolutely right. Not having a valid driver's license is merely a technicality in Bulgaria. Not too many people have either valid driver's licenses or insurance. The law is merely a suggestion in Bulgaria, no one obeys it and there is not enough honest policemen to enforce it. Whatever traffic police is out there rely on bribes a.k.a. tips to upgrade their pay checks.

Well, most will have a drivers license, the question however is how they obtained it: Deserved, bought or thanks to a good relation with the examinator.

I don't say I'm the very best driver, but with over 20 years of driving experience in various parts of the world, I dare to say I'm a way better driver than 90% of the idiots on the roads here in BG. The average driver in BG anticipates only to events within a radius of maximum 5 meter around their car, regardless the speed they're maintaining. Everything outside those 5 meters is basically non existent. Basic car handling proves way too often to be a huge problem, let alone when some more extreme situation occurs. They'd be totally clueless...

Stripping 150K Bulgarians is nice for a start, however people will be without a license for limited time. Strip them for good and install super high fines for each and every offense (speeding, dumb parking, running red lights etc.). It would make the bigger cities a lot safer and for sure a lot nicer.

Let's see if they actually do anything. Too many optimistic announcements like this coming from GERB government, then quietly forgotten about.

As Dutch says, the issue is not licenses but how the drivers got them. I know a few people who never sat their driving test, but simply paid through black market connections in the ministry and received a license...

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